Fashion's Blind Spot: What Andre Leon Talley Did for Black Women.
When Andre Leon Talley passed away I remember looking in the mirror at myself and seeing myself for who I was a black woman who just dared to dream. Andre gave me that feeling that I could dream, a black man who like me attended a Historically Black College in the deep south. I remember making the decision to switch my major to fashion merchandising from economics while I was a sophomore at Clark Atlanta University. That decision alone in my home back in Cleveland did not go over too well with my family because black girls do not study fashion; it was an industry that was never meant for them.
“I remember looking in the mirror at myself and seeing myself for who I was a black woman who just dared to dream.”
And honestly, my family was right. The fashion industry was not meant for black girls, we were nowhere to be found in fashion. I carried that thought with me for a while but something changed when I met Rachel Roy at her fashion show in Neiman Marcus at Lenox Mall in Atlanta. I was still a student so I definitely could not afford her clothes, but I remember her still taking the time out to actually talk to me. She told me to never give up and how as a black woman I matter in this industry. That stuck with me because black women, we are the changemakers. Those few words exchanged with her helped me find us in the industry.
After that day, I looked for me, the black women in the industry. I then found that the black women were the backbone of fashion, they did not have to be in the fashion history books or in Vogue because they were in me. They were the women like my Granny Fannie who I saw shop at Saks for designer dresses, who dressed me up as a young girl and gave me the appreciation of femininity and expression through my clothing. I also remember my Granny Davis spray painting my skirts and boots gold when I was in high school just so I could stand out. My own mother wore Kente printed hats and Lamé outfits just to hang out with her friends. That’s it, those were the women in fashion, not the everyday ones in magazine spreads but the ones who made me fall in love with fashion because they looked like me.
Andre Leon Talley was no different, his love for fashion came from his grandmother, a southern woman like no other who taught him to appreciate luxury. She taught him fashion through her own grace and style, but that was enough to have a lasting impression on him. That's when it clicked to me, fashion has always been a place for black women in the space that they created. They showcased style and luxury at churches, family reunions and their children’s graduations. For those older black women, fashion and style was a must but it was on their terms.
We have always been here just not in the way in which I imagine, but I was wrong. But just like in everything else in fashion we created our own spaces and we have our own fashion history.
I remember looking in the mirror the day Andre Leon Talley died and seeing myself, but also seeing my Granny Fannie, My Granny Davis, my mom and the countless other black women who made me fall in love with fashion but more importantly helped me see myself in the fashion industry.